Madagascar and Other Stories is a tour de force by a distinguished writer. It is powerful and sometimes chilling in its emotional landscapes, accurately conveying the disorientation and dislocation of Africa during the consolidation of local rule. Yet the book is also filled with one-of-a-kind characters and jaw-dropping events thinly disguised as fiction.
A white girl disappears in the Congo jungle. A Belgian planter escapes his past. An African king bests an award-winning American journalist in a contest of will.
Author Frederic Hunter developed these stories from his experience as a State Department official and a journalist in Africa in the 1960s.
Ultimately, the reader is left with the humanity of Africans and the risks and also riches of cross-cultural exploration.